Barcelona put one foot in the Copa del Rey final

Barcelona’s Bojan Krkic, left, vies for the ball with Real Mallorca’s Lionel Scaloni during their Copa del Rey semi-final at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday.

PHOTO: AP

Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez scored as Barcelona beat Mallorca 2-0 at the Camp Nou in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals on Thursday.

Henry headed in a cross by Bojan Krkic in the 35th minute and Marquez notched his first goal for Barcelona from a free-kick in the 74th minute, curling the ball over a wall of defenders and finding the upper left hand corner of the goal.

The match began in front of about 50,000 spectators with a minute’s silence for Barcelona field hockey coach Josep Llorente, who died earlier in the day.

Lionel Messi was on the substitute’s bench, but right-back Daniel Alves was in Barcelona’s line-up after he successfully appealed a suspension to the Spanish Football Federation on Thursday. Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola chose not to risk captain Carles Puyol, who was recovering from an injured left leg muscle sustained during a quarter-final win against Espanyol a week ago.

Barcelona striker Krkic had two early shots saved by outstretched Mallorca goalkeeper German Lux.

Messi and Sergio Busquets went on to huge applause in the 55th minute for Henry and Eidur Gudjohnsen, who played his 100th match for Barcelona.

Lux was forced to save a powerful shot from Messi nine minutes later and another shot, this time left-footed, 10 minutes after that.

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